Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Singapore 2010 - Taekwondo

It was exciting to watch the Taekwondo games at the Youth Olympic Games Singapore 2010. That is the first thing I would say about the YOG as the female players really display good skills at the games. They showed their confidence at the games going for the head kicks whenever the opportunity arises. Although some players showed too much attempt getting the head score but there good attempts and scores which they did.

The opening matches were already exciting therefore entices one to watch further. Although some matches the disparity is too great but at the finals, players have the guts to go get what they want. Once they are ready they will just shoot out. Worawong Pongpanit from Thailand and Touran from Jordan showed that kind of confidence. At the 49kg female match, they showed great kicks and made it to the final. At the final, they made the game exciting and even at the last moment, they strive to go for the points. They had a tie at the last round which made the game even more exciting and at the next round it was Thailand who scored to get the gold medal.

The female under 44kg matches,  Romoldanova Iryna from Ukraine and Tuncer Seyma from Turkey showed great confidence when going for their kicks. Iryna just go for slamming at the timing when she is ready. Seyma too but lost to Valueva Anastasia from Russia at the semi finals and when Anastasia met Iryna at the final, Anastasia showed not only speed but also strength when she attacked. Iryna is slightly smaller in size but she still go for head kicks whenever possible but in the end Anastasis had known her techniques and managed to ride on her strength and accuracy to go for the gold medal.

The men's match however was kind of disappointing. Some games were alright but they do not seems as confident as the female players. There were some good scores but overall it seems that they were really cautious and sometimes they are just too cautious to even go for the scoring kick at the right timing.

New Taekwondo rules

There has been a change in the scoring system for the sport and the aim is to encourage the players to do more fascinating kicking techniques to make the game more interesting. From the many competitions seen, the most common kicks are the turning kicks which is the most direct kick to score points. Now kicks such as backthrust will be two points, turning kicks will be one point. Head kicks will be three points. To properly categorize the types of kick for the the different points,

we can probably say that any direct kicks such as front kicks, turning kicks or even front thrusting kick will be point. Kicks that require more body movements movement such that the turning of the body or the hip to perform the technique will be two points. Some of these kicks are backthrust and 360 degrees turning. Kicks to the head will be three points.

The purpose of this new scoring system as mentioned is to increase the level of interest in the game but whether the players will attempt more advance kicks will be another issue as the direct kicks are perhaps easier and faster to perform. In a way, it is also kind of safer as it does not allow the opponent to have more time to counter or to catch an opening since the direct kicks are supposed to be real fast.

The pre-match before the Olympic matches

When Son Taejin scored at the last few seconds to become the Olympic champion, the crowd cheered for him and he has not disappoint the team by clinching the gold medal defending the title of the national sport of his country. One player should be happy and this player is definitely his opponent at the national team trial. Now he can say he has lost to an Olympic Champion. This match is also in a way pretty exciting because the person who won will get into the squad and to be able to play in the Olympics an event that almost every athlete wants to participate in as it is considered as the most prestigious sports event in the world.

Son Taejin has played well and he was really fast in his kicks in the trial it was a close game and he scored one more point to win the match. Watch how he kick with speed and retreat fast enough such that he does not allow his opponent to have the distance to counter him back comfortably.

It was a good game, a good match and as usual it is not really packed with actions as there are always some waiting time in between the match.

Interesting Olympic match

See how the Korean player play against USA Mark Lopez. Mark Lopez is fast but Son Tae Jin from Korea is so sharp that he could get him even before he can kick out. This is something not easy. Son Tae Jin really play well and deserve to win the gold. This is one of the interesting match that can be found in the Olympic 2008. Finally Olympic games are featured.

More from the Olympics Taekwondo

Raising his hands and shouting out in joy.

The picture was taken in such a way that the athlete in blue was a little shocked by the little action and movement done by the other athlete as if he was trying to scare him.

The Mexican who won of the Women's gold and she celebrate in the mexican way.

It was a moment of joy and happiness that the athletes shout and raised their flags high showing their ways of celebrating that moment.

Memories from the Olympic 2008 Taekwondo

Have you ever wonder what these Olympians will be doing? Perhaps life will be back to normal. They have to train perhaps they have retired or even have become coaches themselves. But moments of what they did and what they have achieved will always stay.

Continuous attack to ensure the gold medal.

Nice escape from the kick.

Turning kick in the Olympics

Which is the most common kick used in the tournament? It will still be the versatile turning kick or roundhouse kick which some may call. Besides the force, the sharpness in scoring point that will create a loud and clear sound, there is another it seems which is the sharpness in scoring at the correct distance. After watching the Olympic matches, it may seems to many that it just turning kicks but actually it is the correct distance the athlete get in so fast and kick so accurately to score the point if they miss just a small distance then that's it, they might have missed the point.

Olympic Taekwondo games

The Koreans have won all four gold medals based on the number of athletes they can send. The finals were all not that interesting and perhaps when it comes to a medal match, athletes will be more cautious with one another. It takes two athletes to make the match interesting actually. Unless one is more of an attacker, the other a counter-player. If both can counter and attack, that will make the match more interesting. There is however one final that is more interesting which is the heavyweight category with Korean against Greece again. This time the Greece athlete did not get knock out and he became more cautious with head kicks. He managed to score back at the third round making the score to 4-4. But the Korean was fast enough to take the opportunity to score back to the flank after doing a backward turning kick. 5-4 was enough for him to win the Gold medal.

Olympic Taekwondo games

In this Olympic, all the former world champions did not get into the finals except Mark Lopez from USA who put up a pretty good match at the semi-final. Chu Mu Yen the first guy who won an Olympic Gold for Chinese Taipei at last Athen Olympic did not managed to get into the final this time but still he won a bronze. His comrade from Chinese Taipei put up a good match with the Korean at the 68kg semi final. Both were fast in their exchanges but at the end the Korean did a feign and scored another a point when the Taiwanese was lured to his move. At the final, it was the Korean who won Mark Lopez, the current World Champion. At the women's match, the games were exciting to watch too in fact they are more proactive in their attacks than some of the matches in the men's game. They were fast and they did nice kicks in the matches. For the women's 47kg Wu Jingyuan won the gold with the score of 1 against -1 at the final and for the women's 57kg Lim Su- Jeong won the gold.

Olympic Taekwondo is coming soon

Olympic Taekwondo is coming soon and what will be the matches be like? This time the competitions have to be more interesting and the scoring system has to be more precise and accurate in order to secure its spot in the 2016 Olympics. 2012 Olympics has a place for Taekwondo but it is now risky if the conditions brought up were not met. Taekwondo is an interesting sport but its scoring system has so much controversy and the game sometimes become boring when the players become too conservative in the finals. This time the players not only must have the aim to win for their country but also to ensure that Taekwondo will continue to be a sport competed in the Olympics.

Protective gear

This is the latest Taekwondo protective gear for the Chinese Taekwondo athletes during the Beijing Olympics. It is actually designed by Nike and in fact it is quite interesting how they come up with the shoe. It is technologically created which says that how the shoe can best cushioned the athletes' feet thus reducing the impact when landing. This seems to be the first time this protective gear will be wore by the athletes in Olympic Taekwondo.

China's Olympic Champion to lead the team

Two-time Olympic champion Chen Zhong leads China's Taekwondo squad as China and has said to win at least one gold in the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games. Chen Zhong, the Olympic champion in 2000 and 2004, is the gold medal hopeful in the women's over 67kg category. Wu Jingyu, world champion in 2007, will compete in the women's 49kg division. Wu had recently competed and won the Gold at the Olympic Taekwondo test event recently.

Winners praised the Olympic event venue

Winners at the Olympic Taekwondo test event was very glad with the venue and 21-year-old Wu after gaining the first gold for the host said, "I feel comfortable with the new venue and atmosphere here."

She also said, "My opponents must have had a thorough research on me as they were all familiar with my attacking techniques and put up a serious challenge"

But she managed to performed steadily in the third set after readjusting her strategy and mood at the interval. She won the Gold medal with the score of 5-1 against her Swede Counterpart.

More medals this time at the coming Olympic

More medals for Taekwondo athletes at the Beijing Olympics as the two bronze medal rule has been brought in. At the usual Taekwondo competitions, as long as the athlete reached the semi-finals, he or she would have secured the bronze medal. But in the Olympics previously, athletes would have to compete again to get the bronze medal as they were only giving out one bronze medal like the other sports events

All golds for the Olympic representatives at the Nationals

All the players in the Olympic squad competed in the four-day national championships and all of them won the gold medals with obvious advantage. The national championships could be a good warm up for them for the coming Olympics. This also kind of showed that these players are really the better ones in their country and should be able to play better in the Olympics.